Physical pain he could take
by TamaraJagellovsk
Summary: Jack desperately needs Sam's help, but she won't listen. Whump.
1. Teaser

**Beta read by ebineez01**

Teaser

"Sam, please help me."

The last thing Jack O'Neill saw before darkness claimed him was Sam Carter turning her back on him. He couldn't remember ever feeling anything as painful as that.


	2. chapter 2

Three days earlier

Jack O'Neill stepped out of the event horizon. Great. Trees. At least they were a different color than back on earth. He took off his sunglasses to decide exactlywhat color they were. Turquois? Aqua? Bright blue? Actually there were all of those colors and some more that he couldn't name. He gave his orders, dividing his team into pairs. Teal'c and Daniel wandered off to the left. Jack turned to Sam Carter and indicated the trees with a gesture that was meant to say: 'What do you make of this?'

"Uhm, Sir? Trees, I guess?"

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, major. What would I do without you?"

"You're welcome, sir. Glad I could be of help."

"Why. Are. They. Not. Green?"

"Well, I assume the atmosphere on this planet might be slightly different from earth, causing photosynthesis to produce a substance like chlorophyll, but with molecules that -"

"You are making this up on the spot, right?"

The slight blush suited his 2IC well, Jack thought. But before he could dwell on it his radio clicked.

"Jack, do you read me?"

"What is it, Daniel?"

"I figured you would want to see this, Jack."

"See what, Daniel?"

"Just get here, will you?"

The colonel looked at his 2IC and shook his head.

"Think he will ever learn proper radio protocol?"

"I wouldn't count on it, sir."

She grinned widely, but then she noticed his annoyance was only partly feigned. Right, this was an unknown planet, and despite their little banter about the trees she knew O'Neill was alert. And he wanted his resident linguist to pay attention, too.

"Sir, Teal'c will keep them out of trouble."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's find out what he's up to."

When Jack and Sam made it to their teammates' position, they saw what Daniel had been so excited about. They were standing in front of a huge building – not ruins, but an actual complex with at least five levels. Daniel was fairly bouncing to get in, but obviously knew better than to do so without Jack's approval. He had to give him credit for that. Or not. Probably he had T to thank for that, he thought before waving a hand at the building.

"Knock yourself out, Daniel."

The linguist took off at high speed, and Jack gestured for the Jaffa to follow. He and Sam went to check the exterior. They had rounded the complex without finding anything interesting, so they stepped through the same entrance that Daniel and Teal'c had used. Inside Jack tried to contact Daniel, but didn't get an answer on he radio.

"Major?"

"Maybe there's something in here that blocks the signal, sir."

Jack considered that for a moment.

"OK, we split up. Let's see where they are. You go right. When you're done with the first level we meet here again."

Carter nodded once and followed his order. Jack turned left. After turning a corner he felt like he had hit a wall, although he hadn't seen anything blocking the way, and a sharp pain raced through his whole body. And then the world went black.

~o0o~

Jack woke up to the worst headache ever. He felt dizzy. He was sick and cold, and it was dark all around him. When he carefully tried to sit up the dizziness got worse. Concussion, he thought. Probably hit my head really bad when I went down. He took a few breaths and fought the nausea. Water would be nice. His vision cleared and he noticed a dim light coming from behind him. He turned very slowly, and the picture he saw caused all sorts of emotions in him. Sam sat a few meters away, cross legged, with her back turned to him. Jack was relieved that she seemed to be OK and that he wasn't alone in this – on the other hand Sam being stuck here with him meant she probably couldn't do much to get him out. Or herself for that matter. He gathered his strength and softly called out to her. She didn't react. He tried again, but she couldn't seem to hear him. Or did she ignore him? Confused, he shook his head. Oh, bad idea. It took him a few minutes of controlled breathing before he could move towards her.

"Carter?", he tried again when he was only two meters away from her. For a moment he thought she would turn around, but she didn't. Why wasn't she talking to him? Why didn't she react when he so clearly needed her help? She still sat with her back towards him. "Sam? Please!", he breathed, extending his hand to her – and there it was again. An intense pain that felt like lightning, from his fingertips all the way to his feet. He managed to stay conscious this time and retreated, shivering and panting. Sam still hadn't looked at him. She stood and paced, and then she took a sip from what looked like a bowl. Water? All of a sudden his lips felt dry. He knew it would probably be useless, but he had to try anyway:

"Carter, can you please get me some of that water?"

No reaction. She took another sip and put the bowl down. More to himself than to her Jack said her name again, and it sounded desperate to his own ears. They had to get out of here. Daniel and Teal'c would get to them – wait, what if they were stuck as well? He looked around, but there was nothing besides his own - cell? And Carter's. No walls of any solid material, but obviously some sort of force field...he could tell that he was getting weaker. It was hard to concentrate, and his eyes were closing. Concussion. Sleeping was a bad idea. But he was so tired...

~o0o~

When he woke up he felt really bad. He knew he needed help, but Sam still didn't react. She sat a lot closer to him now, so close that he would have been able to touch her if it hadn't been for the damn force field. He lifted his hand, trying to estimate how close he could get. He estimated wrong. When the pain hit him he knew he couldn't take much more.

~o0o~

Jack woke up to a sound that hadn't been there before. It came from Carter's cell. A low humming, and then a click. Carter had moved away from him. One of the "walls" of her cell just disappeared, and there was his team! Daniel was all excited, and Teal'c – well, Teal'c was _there._ Only they didn't pay any attention to him.

"MajorCarter, are you injured?"

"No, I'm fine. Where's the colonel?"

Jack couldn't believe it.

"I'm right here, folks!"

No reaction. He felt panic rise. They wouldn't help him...finally they were here and they would leave him behind.

"I don't know, Sam, we assumed you were in the same place?"

Their voices trailed off, and the light in Carter's "cell" went out. He was alone.

How were they supposed to get him out if they didn't even know he was there?

That familiar sharp pain raced through him again, this time seemingly out of nowhere. He hadn't touched anything, hell he hadn't even moved! His head was dizzy and he couldn't see anything - since Carter had left it was completely dark. There was a strange sound, and then there was the pain again. It seemed to originate from his back where his body was in contact with the floor, but in a heartbeat his whole body was burning with it. He waited for a few moments, trying to get his breathing under control. Then he heard it again and braced himself for what he knew was coming. When the pain set in one more time he realized he didn't have anything left in him. There was nothing he could do, no strength left to fight it, and it was pointless anyway. He just knew it was over. And the world went black again.

~o0o~

The next time he woke up he was so weak he could barely open his eyes. He hadn't had anything to eat or drink, and it was impossible to estimate how much time had passed. Days? His throat and mouth were so dry he couldn't even swallow, and his lips were cracked and bleeding. God he would have done anything for that bowl full of water that stood in Carter's cell.

"Carter, please...I need your help. Please give me some of your water."

No, wait. She wasn't there anymore. The guys had gotten her out. They had left him behind. Despair welled up in his soul. He could take pain and thirst and hunger as long as there was hope. But he knew the feeling of being left behind, and he knew when he had lost. Jack admitted defeat and curled up, waiting for death to finally claim him.

~o0o~

Meanwhile at the SGC

"Sam, we have to get back to the planet."

She could hear Daniel call out to her even before she saw him. He came into her lab practically running. She turned to him: "Did you find anything?"

"He's still there, Sam!"

"What? We searched everything twice. There was nothing in the whole building, and below the ground there was only that one cell."

"Wrong."

"What? Daniel, if you found something just _say it_!"

"Look. I took pictures, remember?"

"Of those control panels or whatever they were?"

"Yes. Now: that's the reading that gave us the idea where to look for you."

"Yeah, I was beamed away into that cell, those readings show a life sign, and that there is activity, the light on and all that. How does that help the colonel?"

"See this symbol? I couldn't figure it out because I thought it was a word, but it's a number. It says 'One', Sam."

She was confused.

"All that information about your cell, it's organized in a - well some kind of file or folder."

"Yes?"

"And the file name or whatever you wanna call it is 'One'!"

Sam's eyes grew wide.

"Why would it be numbered if there was only one!"

"Exactly. There's another one, Sam. We have to go back. Now."

~o0o~

Back on the planet

Sam and Daniel were bent over the control panel. Daniel pointed to a picture on the screen:

"There it is. This symbol probably indicates some kind of malfunction in cell number two! OK, your cell had a combination of symbols, like a code. Let's see if – there! These look similar to yours!"

SG-1 raced down the stairs to where Sam had been held. Next to the door there was the panel that Daniel had used to insert the code that had freed Sam. Now he tried with the second code, and a wall disappeared.

"Jack/Colonel/O'Neill!"

Sam was the first to reach the alarmingly still form of their team leader. He lay on his side, and he looked bad. He was deadly pale, his eyes were closed and there was a trace of pain around his mouth. Sam reached for his neck.

"He's alive. Oh my god he was here all the time, and we left him behind."

She fought hard to hold back the tears as Teal'c and Daniel half carried, half dragged Jack back to the 'gate and to safety.

~o0o~

While Jack was being treated by Dr. Fraiser, the rest of SG-1 had to report to General Hammond. He told them what he knew they were waiting for:

"Dr. Fraiser informs me that Colonel O'Neill will make a full recovery. Apparently he suffered a concussion, and she says he might have been exposed to electrical surges of some sort. Besides that, he's severely dehydrated and slightly malnourished, but he will be alright. You brought him back in time."

"Barely, sir", Sam said, guilt obvious in her voice.

"So, Major, can you please explain to me how you could lose the colonel on that planet, and what in God's name happened to him?"

Sam sat straighter.

"Yes, sir. We figure both the colonel and I stepped into some kind of trap, an area that triggered a beaming device. We were transported to two separate holding cells under ground. While mine was functional – with light and a reasonable temperature, even water and some kind of nourishment, the colonel's was apparently malfunctioning. The cells were probably meant to hold intruders until someone could take care of them, but nobody showed up. The planet didn't show any sings of recent activity when we got there. I suggest we lock it out of the dialling computer, sir."

Hammond looked at Daniel and then at Teal'c, but when neither one seemed to have anything to add he smiled and said:

"Very well. Dismissed."

He knew he didn't have to tell them to go see their CO. They were already on their way.


End file.
